What's next?

The same jury will reconvene beginning on Dec. 2 to hear additional testimony to help it decide Iftekhar Murtaza's punishment: the death penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Judge Thomas Goethals will instruct the jury to weigh the aggravating factors in the case – including the crime and the impact on surviving members of the Dhanak family versus mitigating factors, including his childhood, his age and other concerns, in deciding the sentence.

SANTA ANA – A man showed no emotion Friday when he was convicted of double murder for beating and kidnapping his former girlfriend's father and sister and setting their bodies on fire because he viewed them as obstacles to the relationship.

A jury of six men and six women deliberated about four hours before finding that Iftekhar Murtaza, 29, also attempted to kill Shayona Dhanak’s mother. The attack left Leela Dhanak in a coma for three weeks, but she survived and told the jury that Murtaza slit her throat and stabbed her in the stomach.

Leela Dhanak, who lost her husband and oldest daughter in the 2007 attack, dabbed at her eyes with tissues as the verdicts were announced.

The same jury in Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals’ courtroom will now decide whether Murtaza should get the death penalty or life in prison without parole. The penalty phase of the trial will begin Dec. 2.

The evidence for premeditated murders against Murtaza was “overwhelming,” Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy told jurors in his summation of the guilt phase. Gundy insisted that Murtaza was obsessed with Shayona Dhanak and killed her family in a desperate bid to get her back.

Murtaza, however, testified that while he spoke to many people about wanting Dhanak's parents dead, he never meant it literally.

He admitted that he was at the Dhanak home the night of May 21, 2007, when Shayona’s father and sister were beaten and abducted. But he testified that assaults were carried out by two other men for money while he panicked and fled on foot.

Shayona Dhanak's older sister Karishma, 20, and father Jayprakash Dhanak, 56, were kidnapped and their Anaheim Hills home was set on fire using gasoline before the assailants fled in a van with them, leaving Leela Dhanak beaten, stabbed and burned.

Authorities found the bodies of the father and daughter about five hours later at Mason Regional Park in Irvine. Both had been doused with gasoline and set ablaze near a dirt path about two miles from where Shayona Dhanak slept in her dorm room at UC Irvine.

Murtaza was the “scheming mastermind,” Gundy argued, who devised a three-part solution to get his girlfriend back after he knew she was slipping away: remain her friend, carry out the killings to create a “cataclysmic event” in her life, then swoop in as the “white knight” to reclaim his lost love.

Gundy argued that Murtaza blamed the Dhanak family for breaking up his relationship in 2007 with Shayona Dhanak, then 18, because he is Muslim and they were Hindu.

Defense attorney Doug Myers tried to undercut the prosecution's theory that Murtaza had a motive to kill the Dhanaks because of a belief his relationship with Shayona was definitely over, calling the case “a modern-day tragedy.”

The evidence pointed to two people experiencing first love, not a man “obsessed,” Myers said said.

Myers also introduced never seen before documents at trial – two social media messages that appeared to incriminate two other men for the killings.

But Gundy countered the new documents were not recovered by law enforcement and the only way to authenticate them was to take Murtaza’s word for it.

“You’ve had six and a half years to think about your testimony?” Gundy asked.

Iftekhar Murtaza waits to hear his guilty verdicts between defense attorneys Julie Swain and Doug Myers in Orange County Superior Court Friday afternoon. KEVIN SULLIVAN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Iftekhar Murtaza listens to his guilty verdicts between defense attorneys Julie Swain and Doug Myers in Orange County Superior Court Friday afternoon. KEVIN SULLIVAN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Iftekhar Murtaza looks over his shoulder after being found guilty of the murder of his estranged girlfriend's father Jayprakash Dhanak, 56, and her oldest sister Karishma, 20, in an attack May 21, 2007, during his court appearance Friday in Orange County Superior Court Friday afternoon. KEVIN SULLIVAN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Iftekhar Murtaza talks to his defense attorneys Doug Myers and Julie Swain in Orange County Superior Court Friday afternoon after being found guilty of the murder of his estranged girlfriend's father Jayprakash Dhanak, 56, and her oldest sister Karishma, 20, in an attack May 21, 2007. KEVIN SULLIVAN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Undated handout photo of Karishma Dhanak.
Undated dmv photo of Jayprakash Dhanak. Jaypraykash and Karishma Dhanak were taken by the assailants to a bike trail at Mason Regional Park in Irvine where they were killed and their bodies set on fire.
Iftekhar Murtaza and Shayona Dhanak are pictured together in this undated handout photo.
2007 Booking photo of Iftekhar Murtaza. Defense attorney Jack Earley, who represented Iftekhar Murtaza, 26, since his arrest in the May 2007 for the slayings of Jayprakash Dhanak, 56, and Karishma Dhanak, 20, declared an unspecified legal conflict of interest last week and was removed from the case.
Iftekhar Murtaza is brought into Orange County Superior Court Friday afternoon before being found guilty of the murder of his estranged girlfriend's father Jayprakash Dhanak, 56, and her oldest sister Karishma, 20, in an attack May 21, 2007. KEVIN SULLIVAN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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